Bangladesh
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The economy has grown 5-6% over the past few years despite inefficient state-owned enterprises, delays in exploiting natural gas resources, insufficient power supplies, and slow implementation of economic reforms. Bangladesh remains a poor, overpopulated, and inefficiently-governed nation. Although more than half of GDP is generated through the service sector, nearly two-thirds of Bangladeshis are employed in the agriculture sector, with rice as the single-most-important product. Garment exports and remittances from Bangladeshis working overseas, mainly in the Middle East and East Asia, fuel economic growth. . Source: The Country Factbook, CIA. |
Europeans
began to set up trading posts in the area of Bangladesh in the 16th century;
eventually the British came to dominate the region and it became part of British
India. In 1947, West Pakistan and East Bengal (both primarily Muslim) separated
from India (largely Hindu) and jointly became the new country of Pakistan. East
Bengal became East Pakistan in 1955, but the awkward arrangement of a two-part
country with its territorial units separated by 1,600 km left the Bengalis
marginalized and dissatisfied. East Pakistan seceded from its union with West
Pakistan in 1971 and was renamed Bangladesh. A military-backed caretaker regime
suspended planned parliamentary elections in January 2007 in an effort to reform
the political system and root out corruption; the regime has pledged new
democratic elections by the end of 2008. About a third of this extremely poor
country floods annually during the monsoon rainy season, hampering economic
development.